The Year of the Rabbit (by Chinese reckoning) is drawing to a close, and the Year of the Dragon is coming.

It’s been a fun ride for the YGN team, and we will be continuing our efforts in 2012. We are gratified by those readers who are glad to hear that, and just as gratified for the angst we will continue to cause our detractors. Hey, at least we haven’t been blacklisted…

There are many things competing for our attention at this time of year, but some of the posts that we are working on for the near future are:

“NEWINGTON — Mayhem erupted when a man ran through the Fox Run Mall Thursday, smashing display cases and glass storefronts with a hammer as he babbled incoherently, police and witnesses said.

Only one person was injured by falling glass, but witnesses described a chaotic scene in which some people feared a gunman was on the loose. Michael Williams, 34, of Dover, was arrested without incident inside the mall for felony criminal mischief.”

An original .44mag Deerstalker carbine, one of the 2000 or so units manufactured before Ithaca claimed that the name “Deerstalker” was too similar to their “Deerslayer” shotgun. They were simply marked “Ruger Carbine” after that.

With a 4-round tubular magazine, they are nice guns for deer hunting in dense brush, which was why Ruger made 250,000 of them between 1961 and 1984.